Elmer’s Clear Glue Slime Recipe for Kids

Make liquid glass or at least crystal clear slime with the kids. Our Elmer’s clear glue slime recipe is amazingly easy, and it’s the perfect chemistry and science demonstration the kids love. We stumbled upon a fun little fact to get our slime to look as clear as glass. Homemade slime is an awesome activity to share with kids, and we have the best slime recipes to share with you!

ELMER’S CLEAR GLUE SLIME RECIPE

GOT HOMEMADE SLIME?

Are you new to the slime craze or have you been loving slime all along? I absolutely NEVER thought I would have tried making homemade slime so many years ago.

My biggest thought was how can I ever get it to turn out like the pictures. Then I made some…

And you know what?

Making slime is actually pretty easy. We have a growing handful of homemade slime recipes that I use over and over again.

Yes, Elmer’s Washable School Glue is absolutely fantastic for making slime quickly and easily. That’s exactly why you will see us use it each and every time.

Except, I just want to you know, I am NOT PAID by Elmer’s brand to represent their glue. It just works that well, and my goal is to show you how easily we make our slime every time.

CRYSTAL CLEAR SLIME LOOKS LIKE LIQUID GLASS!

We {my son really} stumbled upon one fascinating little tip to really get your slime to look like crystal clear glass, and I will leave that at the very end for you to discover too.

Our other basic slime recipes {although they contain borons too} will leave you with a cloudy clear slime instead unless you add food coloring, but we wanted an absolutely crystal clear slime like liquid glass!

ELMER’S CLEAR GLUE SLIME RECIPE UPDATE

I have a lot of readers express that their clear glue slime seems brittle and crumbly, so you are not alone if you experience this. White glue and clear glue are a bit different in viscosity and make slightly different slimes. I have always found that clear glue slime is simply thicker.

We have been experimenting with the recipe just a bit to find a better ratio of ingredients. So for this easy clear glue slime, we reduced the amount of borax used.

MAKING ELMER’S CLEAR GLUE SLIME STEP BY STEP

*Note: We used a full cup of glue for this slime activity. You can also get a nice pile of slime with only a 1/2 cup.*

First Measure out 1 cup of clear glue into a bowl, and then you can go ahead and add 1 cup of water to the glue. Stir to combine. See full steps below photos.

MAKE YOUR BORAX SLIME ACTIVATOR

Measure out 1/2 teaspoon of borax powder and 1 cup of hot water {hot tap water is fine and does not need to be boiled} as seen below. This is best done by adults. If you are halving the recipe, use 1/4 borax powder to 1/2 cup warm water.

Add the borax powder to the water and stir well to combine. This is your slime activator. You are making a saturated solution and you will see a few particles still floating around and settling to the bottom. Spend a minute stirring to make sure the powder is well incorporated.

FORMING YOUR BORAX SLIME

Add the borax slime activator solution {borax powder and water} to the glue/water mixture. Start stirring! Your slime will begin to form instantly. Keep stirring until your slime has formed and remove immediately to a dry container.

With our new ratio of borax powder to water, you should not have any leftover liquid in the bowl. If you do keep stirring. With higher ratios of borax to water, you may have leftover liquid.

Continue to knead slime with your hands for several minutes to improve the consistency of the slime.

MAKE CLEAR SLIME STEP BY STEP

STEP 1: In a bowl mix 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of glue. Mix well to combine completely.

STEP 2: Make up your slime activator by mixing together 1/4 tsp borax powder and 1/2 cup warm water in a separate bowl. Hot tap water is fine and does not need to be boiled. This step is best done by an adult. Spend a minute stirring to make sure the borax powder is well mixed in.

STEP 3: Add the borax slime activator solution {borax powder and water} to the glue/water mixture. Start stirring! Your slime will begin to form instantly. Keep stirring until your slime has formed and remove immediately to a dry container.

With our new ratio of borax powder to water, you should not have any leftover liquid in the bowl. If you do keep stirring. With higher ratios of borax to water, you may have leftover liquid.

STEP 4: Start kneading your slime! It will appear stringy at first but just work it around with your hands and you will notice the consistency changes.

You can knead the slime in the bowl before you pick it up as well. This slime is stretchy but can be stickier. However, keep in mind that although adding more activator (borax powder) reduces the stickiness, it will eventually create a stiffer slime. You can always add but you can’t take away!

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE HOMEMADE SLIME RECIPE

We always like to include a bit of homemade slime science around here! Slime is an excellent chemistry demonstration and kids love it too! Mixtures, substances, polymers, cross-linking, states of matter, elasticity, and viscosity are just a few of the science concepts that can be explored with homemade slime!

What’s slime science all about? The borate ions in the slime activators (sodium borate, borax powder, or boric acid) mix with the PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue and forms this cool stretchy substance. This is called cross-linking!

The glue is a polymer and is made up of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another keeping the glue in a liquid state. Until…

You add the borate ions to the mixture, and it then starts to connect these long strands together. They begin to tangle and mix until the substance is less like the liquid you started with and thicker and rubbery like slime! Slime is a polymer.

Picture the difference between wet spaghetti and leftover spaghetti the next day. As the slime forms, the tangled molecule strands are much like the clump of spaghetti!

Is slime a liquid or solid?

We call it a Non-Newtonian fluid because it’s a little bit of both! Experiment with making the slime more or less viscous with varying amounts of foam beads. Can you change the density?

Did you know that slime aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)?

It does and you can use slime making to explore states of matter and its interactions. Find out more below…

HOW DO YOU STORE SLIME?

Slime lasts quite a while! I get a lot of questions regarding how I store my slime. We use reusable containers in either plastic or glass. Make sure to keep your slime clean and it will last for several weeks. I love the deli-style containers I have listed in my recommended slime supplies list.

If you want to send kids home with a bit of slime from a camp, party, or classroom project, I would suggest packages of reusable containers from the dollar store or grocery store or even Amazon. For large groups, we have used condiment containers and labels as seen here.

We have the best resources to look through before, during, and after making your (KEYWORD) slime! Make sure to go back and read the slime science above too!

Add some play doh to it it will turn whatever color the play doh is but it helps to not have the slime so stiff not to much though… It would turn sticky but the right amount and it will turn it into an actual slime with good feel and be stretchy…

It’s actually not unsafe and you can check out Steve Spangler, scientist on Facebook to read more about that. If you want completely clear slime, you can not use saline solution because you also need to add baking soda which will disrupt the clarity.

Well you can make slime without borax, but if you want crystal clear slime you need to use borax or you will have cloudy slime. If you plan to add food coloring then you can use our liquid starch or saline slime recipes!

At first I was very skeptical of this because of all the water involved, but I just tried it about 20 mins ago and I am very impressed! I used about 1/2 cup of glue and 1/2 cup water, then the 1 cup of borax water, and I now have about 2 cups of really nice slime. Could have used less of the borax water, but still…really nice recipe. Thank you!

How much slime does this recipe make? My son has a Market Day project and needs to make enough to pass out to 30 kids. I was thinking we would just give them 1/3 to 1/2 cup portions. So I’m trying to decide how much glue to purchase.

This recipe has been great and easy for me! Made over 10 x now. It works very well however I have realized there are many different factors that contribute to the gooeyness of the slime. Most of all ive realized never add too much borax! Any more than the 1ts and u will have hard slime.thanks again littlebins!

Sounds like you don’t live in the US? I have never added lotion to our slime recipes, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you find a different recipe. Have you checked Amazon for glue or is that not available?

Yes, it seems like clear glue is not the stretchiest with the borax slime recipe. You have to be much more patient with the stretch. Unless you need clear glue for a specific reason, try the saline solution slime recipe instead.

We followed this recipe and the slime is amazing. Thank you so much!!! We were not patient to let the bubbles go but the bottom 1/2 inch was super clear after 24 12 hrs.. The kids keep saying it looks like a water fall as the love to streach it.

[…] will see how to make the modified saline solution slime recipe below, and we already have a page dedicated to the clear borax powder slime . We also make the clear glue borax slime LIVE on Facebook so you can see it from start to […]

[…] Borax slime is a traditional, classic slime recipe that has been made for years. I like it for when I need to make a truly clear slime to showcase a favorite confetti like this snowflake slime recipe we just made. Check out the full recipe here. […]